One-cow Family Meets the One-family Cow
(Page 2 of 14)
May/June 1972
By Hank Rate
In addition to a more or less regular supply of fresh milk family cow can provide the back-to-the-land homestead with an almost endless variety of ice cream, cottage cheese, honest butter (which replaces a lot of cooking shortening and the more inexpensive spread"), yogurt, unlimited whipped cream and other easily made by-products. The skim milk left over from the "manufacture" of many of these delectable itemexcellent chicken and hog feed. It's also an ideal supplemment to the diet of one or more farmstead cats (which most knowledgeable country folk prefer over expensive and undesirable varmint poisons).
RELATED CONTENT
The chain goes on and on and—on our Montana homestead—we've found that we're practically married to our cow. About the time the milking gets to be a real chore, it's time to dry Ole Yeller up. We glory in our new-found freedom from dairy duties for a few days . . . until the butter and the cream and the milk runs out. Then, after several weeks of enforced belt-tightening—when we're literally drooling for all those terfat by-products—we're ready to grab the milk stool and run for the barn just as soon as Ole Yeller's new calf gives forth his first bawl.
That cow's influence on our total life is so all-pervad that it defies modern enterprise accounting. Depending on mood, breadth of mind and the scope of operations consider: 1 can "prove" that Ole Yeller is a losing proposition . . . an can also prove that she's our greatest asset. Either way, thou I can honestly say that the cow-aided and abetted by r chickens and garden (all intimately interrelated)-keeps us au from the grocery store except for very infrequent safaris. 7 one factor-regardless of other economic considerations-jil fies keeping Yeller on the place . . . but that's the subject another article.
A word of warning: once you start milking a good cow for a single family as we do, you will be almost certain to accumulate a surplus of milk and cream during some seasons of the year. When this happens, all the neighbors will probably beat a path to your door . . . which can work out advantageously on a barter basis if they pick up your excess production at your place. Just don't be tempted to peddle your (Bossy's) wares or expand the operation into a minor dairy. It's impossible for the one-cow operation to economically comply with the strict dairy laws already on the books. Separating cream and selling it for manufacturing purposes was a possible source of homestead income in the past . . . but regulations are being tightened in this field also. It's best to completely rule out the possibility of cash compensation for your cow's production and concentrate on trading that milk and cream for your neighbors' farmstead surplus, instead.
THE PHYSICAL AND MENTAL INS-AND-OUTS OF OWNING A COW
You'll want to think about two aspects of owning a cow before buying one. The first is your physical facilities. If you don't have at least two acres of good pasture land in humid or irrigated country, I'd forget it. A cow will do fine in dry lot (confined off pasture and able to eat only what you bring her), but the logistics of providing a balanced diet for one animal get pretty thin. You'll need to be fairly close to a source of 2 1/2 or 3 tons of hay and a ton of grain . . . and have a place to store that much feed. Milking facilities can be pretty primitive . . . some oldtimers just threw a rope around Bossy's horns, anchored her to a post and milked in the field. In a relatively confined area, though, the relation of hay and grain storage to the milking area to the manure-handling facilities to the pasture is mighty important.
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